L.J. Writes

It's past time for Mary Sue to go into retirement. The concept isn't helpful, and in fact distracts from more than it sheds light on the larger problem of crappy writing and storytelling. A character perceived to be Suish inspires such knee-jerk dislike, people start thinking the character is what's wrong with the story when the real problem is much deeper. Mary Sue is just the merest surface of the problem, an easy target and not the source of the issues.

( On the uselessness of the concept, and the real problem of bad writing )

"Mary Sue" is a convenient shorthand for that twinge of annoyance we feel when we realize the fictional reality is being warped or broken for an author agenda. Real conversation about storytelling and writing, however, won't happen while we just brush past bad writing in pursuit of the irritating character. Let's talk about the disease of bad writing in general, and not just its face and symptom: our much-maligned, cheerful or depressed, pure or evil, special or ordinary, but ultimately tragically overblown Mary Sue.